Putin’s photographs also led to tremendous chatter in Russian gay chatrooms and blogs, the inference drawn being that with his bare-chested pix the president was signaling for more tolerance towards homosexuality.
From there, to make the jump that Putin and Prince Albert’s outing was a Russian version of Brokeback Mountain, a movie about gay cowboys, was not very difficult.
Image: President Putin on a family holiday in Vladivostok in 2002
Photograph: Courtesy the Presidential Press Service
Also read: PM's Moscow visit: Low-key but solid